Arts

C2SV Discussions w/ Yasha Levine and Adam Rogers

WIRED editor Adam Rogers will talk about his new book, 'Proof: The Science of Booze,' and Yasha Levine will discuss the private surveillance state at C2SV in September.

August 27, 2014 by Nick Veronin

DRINK UP: WIRED editor Adam Rogers will talk about his new book, 'Proof: The Science of Booze,' and Yasha Levine will discuss the private surveillance state at C2SV in September.

In Silicon Valley, we exist under the constant gaze of monitoring—voluntary and involuntary, in our personal communications and by privately-owned security cameras. It's enough to drive a person to the bottle. If you're fretting about the surveillance state and enjoy a couple of quiets at the end of the day, then you might want to catch the C2SV tech discussions with writers Adam Rogers and Yasha Levine.

Rogers, articles editor at WIRED Magazine, has just published a book, titled Proof: The Science of Booze, which details humanity's long-standing relationship with the sauce and what we are only just now coming to understand about how it works. The book explores the accidental beginnings of hooch and argues that it was a civilizing force—in spite of how uncivilized it can often make people behave. He dives into the science of how beer is made, wine is pressed and spirits are distilled. Rogers even gives his readers the most important information of all—what science knows about what causes hangovers, and how they can be effectively combated.

Levine, a writer for Silicon Valley techblog PandoDaily and former editor-in-chief of The eXile, will be returning from a summer vacation on the front lines of the conflict in Ukraine to discuss his research into the massive amount of personal information that is collected on a daily basis by private tech companies around the valley, and what those companies are doing and could potentially do with that information.

While everyone has their undies in a bunch over revelations that the NSA has been spying on American citizens, companies like Google and Facebook are sucking up data on everything from political sympathies to sexual orientation. Furthermore, Tor—which purports to anonymize online searches—was developed, built and financed by the U.S. military and intelligence establishment.